Battle Report: 3K Tournament - Oct. 14, 2007

Battle Report: 3K Tournament - October 14, 2007
Format: Constructed (12 players, 5 preliminary rounds + Semis & Finals)

Hero: Telrander
Tourney rank: 3rd
Final score: 4-2
Tourney points: 10 (2 per win, 1 per loss)
Total points for October: 18

For this tournament, I decided to use Telrander instead of my usual Bulkas rush deck. Its first iteration did very well back in the Dark Portal environment and, with new allies, abilities and quests from the Fires of Outland expansion, the deck can even be more explosive. Also, it’s just a fun deck to use with the potential to deal 20+ damage in a single turn with the hero's flip.

Round 1: Kennard – Nathadan
Got him down to 2 life when he casted Lay on Hands. At this point, I still had 4 allies in play and he conceded a few turns after.
Result: win

Round 2: Edber – Grennan Stormspeaker
My opening hand had no quest in it but I still liked it. I had Call of the Wild plus Predatory Strikes and some allies. By the fourth turn, my cat form was already dealing 10 points of damage per attack and it was over quickly.
Result: win

Round 3: Emil – Rotun Daggerhand
I really enjoy going against Emil mainly because our games rarely last more than 10 minutes - regardless of who wins. He likes to race and I do too. However, I haven't tested my new rush deck against his so I wasn't too sure of how it would do. For this tournament as well as the last, he packed a Rogue combo deck - very, very fast with dual-wielding, Surprise Attacks, Jackknife and Sinister Strikes. Still, I felt my deck could match his speed and, with some luck, win the game.

Round 2 was the second straight game in which I played a hand with zero quests. Strangely enough, it was an even better hand than the previous one. Since Emil’s was a rush deck as well, I wasn’t worried about protectors getting in the way of my hero attacking. Having won initiative and with a very good hand, it was a pretty straightforward win and the game was over by the fifth turn.
Result: win

Round 4: Joel – Zenith Shadowforce
It’s the sixth straight weekend I faced Joel in the preliminary rounds. This current pairing wasn’t much of a surprise, though, because we both had similar 3-0 records going into the fourth round. Joel won initiative and it was a struggle for me for most of the way. But, late in the game, I was able to draw more pumps for my cat form and Joel just ran out of protectors.
Result: win

Round 5: Allen – Kana Nassis
It was a see-saw battle for most of the game. I knew he had Chipper in his deck so I kept a Cat Form in my hand just in case. True enough, he played Chipper and destroyed my Call of the Wild upon declaration of attack. I immediately played Cat Form and the damage went through. He then played Chasing A-Me and went on to recur his Chipper. I had him down to 3 life when my last form card was destroyed and it was game over.
Result: loss

Semi-final round: Dudes – Grennan Stormspeaker
Another close game. He had initiative and I had to play catch-up for most of the game. I was starting to gain momentum when he started putting in big protectors. His Ghost Wolf and Draconian Deflector were also giving me problems. I needed one more attack to deal fatal damage but just couldn’t get around everyone.
Result: loss

Tournament winner: Allen
Tournament runner-up: Dudes (Raymond)